Flexagon has released a new version of FlexDeploy which is packed full of new features, plugins, usability, and productivity improvements. Whether you’re a developer, administrator, release manager, or any role within the software delivery lifecycle, you will see benefits from FlexDeploy 5.3. FlexDeploy is all about applying DevOps, CI/CD, and Release Orchestration processes and automation to speed up the delivery process while improving the quality, risk, and cost associated with all aspects of developing and maintaining on prem and cloud-based technology solutions. Here are some highlights of the new release.
Toolchain Integration
It’s all about establishing an end-to-end integrated toolchain, from planning through release and monitoring. The better integrated the toolchain, the higher levels of productivity and efficiency that can be achieved for all roles involved. Flexagon has invested heavily in this area from version 1 of FlexDeploy, and version 5.3 continues to extend integration via native out-of-the-box integrations, plugins, and additional ‘frameworks’ which make it easy to integrate tools where there isn’t an out-of-the-box integration provided.
- Webhooks: FlexDeploy 5.3 includes powerful features for receiving and managing webhook events from other tools that are part of your DevOps toolchain. Webhooks enable a broad spectrum of integrations, further streamlining your DevOps solution. There are native integrations and examples for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jira, and Slack to enable continuous integration, dynamic release creation, external approvals, and more. FlexDeploy makes it easy to establish powerful integrations with any tools which support webhooks.
- Custom Integration for Service and Change Management tools: Along with long-standing integration with ServiceNow, FlexDeploy now enables a framework for integrating with any ITSM Change Management System. Automate the creation of change tickets and/or link the approval of a pipeline gate to the approval of an associated ticket. There are many tools in this space, and we are making it easy for customers to leverage their investments while streamlining the overall process for managing change. Flexagon is focused on providing many native integration options, while also providing simple means to integrate with any best-of-breed tool in this space.
- Custom Integration for Agile Project Management and Issue Tracking tools: Along with long-standing integration with Jira, FlexDeploy now enables a framework for integrating with any Issue Tracking System. Associate tickets with build requests, update ticket comment/status on deployment, or link approval of a pipeline gate with the approval of a ticket. There are many tools in the agile management and issue/bug tracking category, and FlexDeploy 5.3 makes it easy to leverage existing investments while streamlining the overall process for managing project delivery using agile methods and tools.
- Continuous Integration for Oracle Integration Cloud: FlexDeploy now offers an innovative solution for enabling Continuous Integration based on changes to the Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) development environment. Initiate your pipeline executions automatically to empower CI/CD in a heartbeat. This out-of-the-box integration with OIC makes it a snap for developers to stay focused on what they love most, creating awesome software! The result is higher development productivity, happier developers, and higher customer/end-user time to value and satisfaction.
- APIs Everywhere: Flexagon has invested heavily in APIs in the past, and we continue to find ways to extend those benefits. The goal is to support any type of interaction that makes sense for our customers, including end-to-end automation via FlexDeploy’s robust browser-based UI, via REST APIs, or a host of other ways. Many customers choose to use FlexDeploy as their enterprise DevOps platform, while others leverage FlexDeploy’s robust feature set and plugins to drive FlexDeploy from another DevOps tool using REST APIs. Whatever makes the most sense for our customers, makes sense to Flexagon.
Security
FlexDeploy takes a comprehensive approach to DevSecOps that goes from how you segregate responsibilities by role, to how you securely manage change across an integrated development and delivery lifecycle. The security enhancements in FlexDeploy 5.3 for Single Sign On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) amps up the level of security even further, helping customers achieve the degree of security they want at the rate and pace they desire.
- SSO and MFA: FlexDeploy now enables seamless integration with your existing SSO and two-factor/MFA providers, helping establish the same security and convenience that you may be experiencing with other applications in your enterprise.
- Native SSH endpoint connectivity for Windows: As a DevOps platform, FlexDeploy connects with and manages changes across a multitude of endpoints running everywhere and our strategy is to make connectivity a snap. Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 have native support OpenSSH, and FlexDeploy 5.3 enables connection to these Windows endpoints using OpenSSH and removes the dependency on Cygwin.
Usability and Productivity
Achieving the best user experience (UX) and highest levels of productivity requires ongoing investment, and the UX and productivity improvements in FlexDeploy 5.3 help customers throughout their entire FlexDeploy journey. Enhancements in FlexDeploy Blueprints help during the evaluation of FlexDeploy, for customers implementing FlexDeploy, and for existing customers who are expanding their use of FlexDeploy.
- Blueprints UX: Blueprints help accelerate the modeling of applications and related resources so you can start building and deploying in minutes. Blueprints enhancements in 5.3 make it easy to discover your source code from GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab repositories. This release also includes new user preferences for enhanced UX, including theme, credentials, and defaults.
- New Blueprints: We continue cranking out blueprints and this release includes Google Apigee, Salesforce, SAP, Mulesoft, and Dell Boomi. The new blueprints help with the speed and productivity of evaluation, implementation, and ongoing adoption and evolution of a FlexDeploy implementation. The result is time savings, consistency, and the ability for our customers and partners spend time achieving and realizing benefits versus configuring and administering FlexDeploy.
New Native Plugins and Integrations
We continue investing in out-of-the-box solutions for many technology ecosystems and tool categories for all aspects of DevSecOps. Whether you’re evaluating FlexDeploy or are a long-time user, the new plugins and integrations in FlexDeploy 5.3 might be right up your alley.
- SAP – manage and orchestrate SAP changes requests
- Cucumber – The Cucumber plugin makes it easy to orchestrate and execute Cucumber Java tests
- API Fortress – The API Fortress plugin provides operations to execute tests on the API Fortress platform
- Acunetix – The Acunetix plugin makes it easy to schedule Acunetix scans and retrieve results of past scans
- SonarQube – The SonarQube Plugin provides a means to execute SonarQube scans on source code which generates reports for bugs, code smells, vulnerabilities, etc.
- Redmine – Provides integration with Redmine, allowing users to update tickets managed in this popular issue tracking tool
- BMC Remedyforce – The Remedyforce plugin integrate deployment approvals with Remedyforce change requests and creates Remedyforce incidents on deployment failures
- Freshservice – The Freshservice plugin integrates deployment approvals with Freshservice change requests and creates Freshservice incidents on deployment failures
As you can see, the overarching theme of this release is “integration, security, and ease of use.” We are excited for you to check out these new features and product enhancements, and to hear your feedback.
Come and get it!!!
